An artificial grass company forced to remove a billboard featuring a woman in a bikini has hit back with a bold replacement.
Great Grass MCR Ltd found themselves in hot water last November after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received four complaints about the advert and ruled it was inappropriate.
And now, bosses at the company have put up a new poster which, in the place of the scantily-clad woman, features a muscle-bound topless man.
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"Great abs, great grass," the billboard now reads, with text underneath describing their astroturf as "perfect 365 days a year."
The original poster for the Oldham-based company was branded "offensive" after the ASA ruled it "objectified and stereotyped women as sexual objects".
The billboard declared the company "Artificial Grarse Experts" in what seemed to be a mash-up of the words grass and a***.
The offending image of the woman wearing only a bikini thong could be seen underneath the slogan, along with the text: "Perfect 365 days a year… Get laid by the best."
The ASA also accused the company of referencing the model's buttocks and making her rear end the "focus" of the commercial.
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In a statement following the ruling, the watchdog said: "The complainants, who believed the ad objectified and sexualised women, challenged whether the ad was offensive, harmful and irresponsible."
It added: "The ad must not appear again in its current form.
"We told Great Grass MCR Ltd t/a Great Grass to ensure their future ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious or widespread offence," they added.
In reference to the slogan "get laid by the best", the authority added: "We considered 'get laid' would be understood by readers as a slang reference to sexual intercourse.
"We considered that text, together with the model's pose and state of undress, was sexually suggestive and would be seen as presenting the model as a sexual object."
But Great Grass wasn't happy with the feedback and said they’d used the slogan “Get laid by the best” before.
They also complained there had only been three complaints against them at the time of the ruling and believed most members of the public had found the advert funny, even adding that they believed most of the complaints were from people on social media encouraging others who may not have even seen the billboard themselves.
A spokesman for Great Grass told the Manchester Evening News at the time: "The ad was a bit of light-hearted fun and not intended to offend anyone."
The astroturf company added it was wrong to assume the model featured in the advert was a woman, branding the claim offensive to the transgender community.
Hitting back at the ban they quickly put out another campaign claiming 40 million people had found the original advert “hilarious”.
The Daily Star has contacted the ASA and Great Grass MCR Ltd for comment.
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